We weren’t 12 spies sent in to evaluate the prospects of conquering the Promise Land. Instead, thousands of years after only two spies, Joshua and Caleb, brought back a good report—which was rejected by the ancient Children of Israel—I was among nine Baptist newspaper editors who recently toured Israel as guests of the Ministry of Tourism.

NAZARETH, ISRAEL (FBW)—Evangelicals who come to the Holy Land as tourists and those who love Israel for theological and political reasons, should understand there is a vibrant Gospel-preaching ministry in Israel today—”living stones” who also need the support of fellow evangelicals, according to Baptist leader Bader Mansour.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (FBW)—Worship services at Gaza Baptist Church now includes no more than 10 or 15 believers who are willing to risk publicly attending the only evangelical church in all of the Gaza Strip since October when a church leader was martyred.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (FBW)—David Baker is a fast-talking Israeli transplanted from New York with the tough public relations task of making Israel’s case to an often antagonistic foreign press sympathetic to the Palestinian cause in the intractable Middle East conflict.